Only (the) Fans Can Save Us

Issue #276 | Sept. 26, 2024

We’re no strangers to looking at OnlyFans here at Passionfruit (don’t be gross, not like that), and this week Lon Harris walks us through the platform’s promises and pitfalls. Most notably, the platform paid out over $5 billion for its creators on the platform last year. That’s considerably larger than the $1 billion Creator Fund that TikTok discontinued last year and the $1.5 billion that Facebook previously pledged to creators before revamping their creator payment systems.

But to put it another way: The fans that use OF spent $5 billion on their favorite creators last year. While most other platforms (with the exception of Patreon, Kofi, and Fansly) rely primarily on advertising to generate a revenue split for creators, OF has, well, only the fans. That of course has limitations and risks too, but it’s a fundamentally pure model of fan-to-creator payments.

The content is obviously the most intimate, but so is that relationship with the fans. And that is ultimately going to be the revenue that is most ironclad. I’m not saying we should all go out and start producing boudoir shots to supplement our Youtube revenue (I’m not saying not to, either), but thinking about how to connect more deeply with fans is a big part of this game that isn’t immediately obvious when you make your first couple of TikToks (though we should note: TikTok is also getting into the subscription game now too).

To that end, we’re connecting with our own fans over on Discord, and if you’d like to talk more with us and our fans about what you’re doing with your own fans, we’d love to have you there. Come say hi, tell us what you’re working on, and let’s find ways to create intimate connections with each other and our audiences.

Passionfruit fans only, please. We’ll talk about how to manage the haters some other time.

– James Del, Publisher

NOTED BY LON HARRIS

OnlyFans Revolutionizes the Creator Economy with $5 Billion in Annual Earnings

In fact, the platform is now among the largest and most notable online.

By Lon Harris, Passionfruit Contributor

→ READ THE FULL STORY

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IN THE BIZ

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